Large-scale video display systems such as rear and front projection television systems, plasma displays, and other types of displays are becoming increasingly popular and affordable. Often such large-scale video display systems are matched with surround sound and other advanced audio systems in order to present audio/visual content in a way that is more immediate and enjoyable for people. Many new homes and offices are even being built with media rooms or amphitheaters designed to accommodate such systems.
Increasingly, such large-scale video displays are also being usefully combined with personal computing systems and other information processing technologies such as internet appliances, digital cable programming, and interactive web based television systems that permit such display systems to be used as part of advanced imaging applications such as videoconferencing, simulations, games, interactive programming, immersive programming and general purpose computing. In many of these applications, the large-scale video display systems are used to present information of a confidential nature such as financial transactions, medical records, and personal communications.
One inherent problem in the use of such large-scale video display systems is that the cost of such a display system is high which means that the typical home or office can only afford one such display. Thus, people who wish to view content presented by such a display must typically agree on the content to be presented on the display. Where the people disagree about what is to be watched, conflicts can occur. Thus, some display devices have been developed that present more than one type of content on the same display. For example, so-called “picture and picture” televisions have existed for some time. These televisions present one channel of content on a first portion of the screen and images from a second channel of content on a second portion of the screen. Typically, the first portion of the screen occupies more than half of the display screen while the second portion occupies on inset portion within the first portion. It will be appreciated that such an arrangement, while useful, has drawbacks. The selection of which channel of content will be presented on the first portion of the display screen can occasion the same conflicts that arise with conventional televisions channel of content. Further, in a usual implementation the second portion appears as an overlay on the first portion blocking portions of the first image. This leads to dissatisfaction with the appearance of images that are presented in the first portion, while the comparatively small size of the second portion leads to dissatisfaction with the appearance of images presented in the second portion.
Thus, what is needed is a presentation system that is capable of presenting different channels of content to different people in a presentation space while also presenting each channel of content in a pleasing or restrictive manner. Preferably, such a presentation system will present such content so that each channel of presented content appears, to an observer, to occupy substantially all of the display without interference from other content. One way to accomplish this effect is to use a display screen and lenticular screen to divide images presented on the display screen so that the display can present content to different zones proximate to the screen. In one system used in a product known as the “SynthaGram™” monitor sold by StereoGraphics Corp. San Rafael, Calif., U.S.A. multiple images are presented to a system of rigidly established viewing zones each defined relative to the display. Within each zone, a viewer appears be able to view the displayed images in depth. The “SynthaGram™” presents the same content to each zone. U.S. Pat. No. 5,049,987, entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CREATING THREE-DIMENSIONAL TELEVISION OR OTHER MULTI-DIMENSIONAL IMAGES, filed Oct. 11, 1989 by Hoppenstein also describes a system of rigidly established viewing zones and suggests that different content can be presented in each zone.
It will be appreciated that the rigidly defined zones used in the “SynthaGram™” and described in the '987 patent requires that the users position themselves in predefined zones to observe the content. This can be inconvenient and impractical in many home viewing environments.
Thus, what is also needed is a system and a method for presenting multiple channels of content to different people in a presentation space that adapts to the actual positions of the people. What is also needed is a presentation system that is capable of presenting different content to different people in a presentation space in one mode of operation and yet is operable in another mode to present the same content throughout the presentation space.
Even if the need to present different image content to different presentation areas is solved, a solution is also needed for the problem of how to provide different audio signals associated with different content so that each person in the presentation space who hears audio content that is associated with the image content without interference from audio content associated with other image content presented in a presentation space.
It will also be appreciated that the location of people in the presentation space can change during presentation of content. Accordingly, what is needed is a system that detects changes in the location of people within the presentation space and adapts the presentation of content based upon the detected changes.